CDU: Portimão Municipal Assembly does not want the Constitution of the Republic distributed in schools

At the last meeting of the Municipal Assembly of Portimão, on 7 July, the Democratic Unitary Coalition ( CDU ), composed of the Portuguese Communist Party, the Green Ecologist Party, the Democratic Intervention Association and many thousands of democrats without party affiliation, presented a proposal to offer a copy of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic to each student in the 3rd cycle of primary education and secondary education in the municipality.

The initiative was conceived within the scope of the fiftieth anniversary of the approval of the Constitution, which will take place in 2026, and aimed to raise awareness of it, which, for the CDU, was to “raise awareness of Portuguese democracy and the common values ​​it advocates”, as can be read in the text of the proposal, with “familiarity with the content of the Constitution being fundamental for the exercise of rights and duties and [for] knowledge of public bodies and powers”.

Referring to the “current relevance of its purposes of guaranteeing human dignity and equality for all in law and in life”, the CDU concludes by arguing that “knowledge [of the Constitution] is a right of citizenship and a guarantor of greater social and political awareness”, gaining “special importance” at a “time when political forces are emerging that call into question the values ​​of democracy”.

The proposal, however, was rejected with the abstention of the PS and the PSD, and with votes against from Chega, PAN and also the Left Bloc (BE), which justified its vote by arguing that the proposal is part of the "PCP's electoral program" and that "distributing copies of the Constitution to students would be a waste of paper."